Principal of Viqarunnisa Noon School and College Husne Ara Begum went on a three-month leave yesterday while many students left their classrooms and held protests on the campuses demanding her dismissal for her handling of a sexual assault scandal that rocked the prestigious institution.

“I am one of you and among you as grief-stricken mother. This is no time to utter words, this is the time to share the shock and sorrow you are bearing in the deepest point of your hearts and assist you in every possible way.”

Editorial

We strongly condemn the barbaric terror attacks which have once more claimed lives in Mumbai and left scores of others injured. Our prayers go out to the families of the dead and to those who have been wounded. In their hour of grief, we as well as the broad mass of Bangladesh's citizens stand with the people and government of India as they struggle to defeat the forces of terrorism.

Consultations have been taking place between the government and the trade and chamber bodies on one level, and between the wholesalers and the business leaders on another. The missing link, however, seems to be the retailers' associations. They need be brought in the loop because they are an important part of the market equations.

Sports

In his first game in charge against Pakistan, Bangladesh national team coach Nikola Ilievski had no choice but to stick with the squad that was entrusted to him. But ahead of their second World Cup qualifier against Lebanon, the 56-year old Macedonian brought in a number of changes based on his viewings of the ongoing Grameenphone Super Cup.

Former Bangladesh captain turned chief selector Akram Khan has voiced his concern over the so-called technical committee's involvement in the selection procedure following the drama with the announcement of the national team for the upcoming Zimbabwe tour.

Sachin Tendulkar has been in scintillating form for the past few seasons and even after 22 years on the road in international cricket, former England captains Michael Vaughan, Nasser Hussain, Mike Atherton and Graham Gooch feel the talismanic batsman will pose the biggest threat to the Englishmen in the much anticipated Test series that begins next week at Lord's.

After two cagey rounds of games at the Copa America, save for Argentina's swatting of Costa Rica, the championship burst into life Wednesday as Brazil hit four goals against Ecuador to reach the quarter-finals.

After two games at the 43rd Copa America left hosts Argentina, holders Brazil and 14-times winners Uruguay winless it seemed the old order of South American football could be facing a challenge to its long supremacy.

Lily Li wears a lanyard with a little plastic card around her neck, even at weekends. It is a badge of honour: it shows that she has a white-collar job. (She is a secretary at Access Asia, a retail-research company in Shanghai.) She uses Apple earphones for the cheap Chinese mobile phone in her pocket, so it looks as if she owns an iPhone. And she drives to work, though it takes four times longer than public transport, just to show off her little car.

Euro zone countries continued to grapple with the thorny issue of involving the private sector in tackling Greece's debt pile as they prepared for a meeting to decide support for the country next week.

Twitter is courting bigtime advertisers and will soon allow them to tailor, automate and publish ads in bulk directly onto the Internet microblogging service, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.

Indian companies' sales growth has soared past the rest of the world in the past five years, posting annual average rises of 27 percent compared to just 5 percent for firms in developed countries, an Ernst and Young survey found.

Bangladesh Mathematical Olympiad, a national annual competition, aims to spread passion for Mathematics across the country so that a Bangladeshi gets to win Nobel Prize in Mathematics by 2030, said Eng Prof Jamilur Reza Chowdhury.

The joint team of water transport authority and Narayanganj district administration could remove around one-sixth of earth deposits from the filled-up section of the river Shitalakkhya during the three-day drive that concluded yesterday.

The High Court yesterday summoned Country Manager of Etihad Airways Ashraful Kabir for explaining the recent incident of harassing and torturing two Bangladesh born women at Abu Dhabi International Airport.

A firefighter and three volunteers with necessary firefighting equipment can be available as a precautionary measure at weddings, religious functions or social gatherings for anyone spending Tk 1,000 per day.

Awami League Central Working Committee (ALCWC), the highest decision-making body of the ruling party, will sit on July 20 to discuss the country's latest political situation and organisational matters.

Speakers at a workshop here in the port city yesterday termed climate impacts a challenge for veterinary education and stressed the need for time befitting veterinary education policy to fight new diseases of livestock.

Qulkhwani of Dr Mahbub Morshed Munna, a harmonica player of the band Renaissance, will be held at his residence at Jayakunja, House No-85, Road No-8A of Dhanmondi in the city after Maghrib prayers today.

Cross sections of people including students and businessmen yesterday formed a five-kilometerlong human chain across Gaibandha town to realise three-point demand including setting up of Brahmaputra multipurpose bridge.

Investigation into the case for murder of indigenous woman Moriam Murmu has taken a new turn as police arrested four more killer-suspects from Shimla Dighipara village in Godagari upazila of Rajshahi district yesterday.

A truck load of smuggled rubber was recovered in Rabna bypass area of the district town on Wednesday morning. Acting on a tip-off, a team of Rab-12 raided the area early in the morning and seized the truck along with three tons of rubber worth over Tk 3 lakh. Sensing the presence of the elite force the smugglers, truck driver and helper managed to flee the scene.

A man was arrested on charge of attempting to rape a woman of Paschim Velabari village in Aditmari upazila Tuesday night. The arrestee was identified as Abdus Sobhan, son of Nasar Ali of the village. Police said Sobhan tried to rape Rabin Chandra's wife of the same village while she was asleep alone in her house. Sobhan was caught red-handed by locals and handed over to police.

Three alleged criminals were arrested along with a pistol by a joint team of Rab and police from Chandpur village in Gangni upazila Wednesday morning. The arrestees were identified as Ripon, 19, son of Yusuf Ali, Rubel, 20, son of Khokon and Alamgir, 21, son of Abed Ali of the village. Acting on secret information, the joint team in a drive arrested Ripon and Rubel from the village at about 11:00am and on their confessional statement arrested Alamgir from local degree college area. Later, they recovered one foreign made pistol from their possession.

Letters

I was watching a programme named “Jole Jongole” on ATN recently. The programme showed the evil activities of Wildlife Trust of Bangladesh (WTB). I was shocked to know that this organization is killing our tigers in the name of saving or preserving them. They are doing the same evil experiments again and again by injecting them the wrong tranquilizer named "TENAZOL" which is dangerous for tigers. They knew very well that the tigers could be killed because of that injection, but they still applied it on them. They also put radio collar around their neck. Two tigers died because of wearing this radio collar. It turned out that this organisation and the man Adam who runs it are doing harmful experiments with our tigers. I urge the government to do something about it. We don't want foreigners to come here and kill our tigers.

In 1975- 4th amendment, in 1979 -5th amendment and in 1982- 7th amendment, all those amendments were the blazing indications for us that the government should not pass any sort of amendment which is not recommended by the main opposition party as well as the majority people of the country.

It is a matter of great concern that even after paying tax, levies and tariffs on individual income, food items and other imported goods, there is no gratifying facilities even in the urban areas. It is true that a financially healthy government exchequer is essential in this regard, which can be made through proper collection of taxes, levies and tariffs. From a news report it has been known that the government's revenue generation through the collection of taxes, levies and tariffs has substantially increased in recent years, and despite the fact we don't see enough initiatives to repair the city roads. Even in dry season we see damaged and potholed roads in some areas, let alone the condition of roads during rainy season. For instance, the roads of Nikunja-2 Residential Area under Khilkhet police station are damaged severely because no repair work has been done for many days. Almost all the roads are in bad shape and causing daily sufferings to the residents. We drew the attention of the authorities to this issue many times but they turned a blind eye towards the problem. Our appeal to the government-- either stop imposing tax on us or ensure public amenities.

If someone comes out in the morning for a walk in fresh air in the Dhaka University campus, s/he will be disheartened because of the bad odour from garbage and human fasces. There prevails no hygienic atmosphere. Vagabonds, lunatics, and street urchins are living here and there.

Barrister Harun ur Rashid in his article entitled 'Manmohan's incredible remarks', published in The Daily Star on July 6th, 2011, failed to accept the fact that the threat of unscrupulous development of fundamentalism globally has a very negative impact in Bangladesh, that the Madrasa system and different terrorist movements in the name of religion must be checked sooner than later.

From a daily newspaper I came to know that Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister of West Bengal, is going to introduce an extraordinary system for the people of Kolkata as well as West Bengal. Traffic jam is grabbing the city which has increased people's sufferings. To mitigate people's sufferings, Mamata Banerjee decided to air the national anthem of India in every traffic signal point whenever the red light is on. This is really a good move. On the other hand, Bangladesh has also been facing the same problem for long. Why is our government not thinking like that?

Majority in parliament is essential for smooth functioning of a government but absolute majority blinds the govt. absolutely. By doing away with the caretaker government (CTG) system the AL government has proved this truth again. They have scrapped the CTG with the excuse of implementing the apex court's verdict. But they did not follow the advice of the apex court which said the next two elections could be held under CTG, for the sake of peace and public interests.

The anxieties expressed by the Indian PM Dr. Manmohan Singh are more than unusual. His suspicion may be based on intelligence report but the premises on which the prediction is deduced are not totally reliable. The arrow of suspicion thrown toward Jamaat-e- Islami is reasonably targeted. All the top leaders of Jamaat are in custody facing war crime trials.

While watching an episode of Mina cartoon on TV the other day, I was reading some reports in various Bengali dailies including Prothom Alo about the rape of a schoolgirl of Viqarunnissa Noon School & College by Porimol Joydhor, a teacher of the same school. The subject matter of Mina cartoon was that we must give school education to female children right in their childhood. But the rape of a student of the most reputed school in Bangladesh by a tainted person in disguise of a teacher is a satire to the Mina cartoon. As a conscious citizen, I demand exemplary punishment of the rapist.

The sufferings of two female passengers in Abu Dhabi while flying Etihad Airways was well covered in Bangladesh media. I am not trying to shift blame from those who are responsible, but in the matter of stamping of documents, the airline staff has no involvement and no power. Such stamping are done by airport security staff who are non commercial government agencies (normally police), so it would be simplistic to argue that as it was the duty of the airline staff to stamp the boarding card which they had failed to do, they should take the card back and get it stamped to eliminate the queuing problem. The airline is a commercial firm and its staff tends to commercialize matters such as issuing of tickets and boarding passes but they cannot influence or carry out any security procedure. Most of these checks and stamps are anti-terrorist measures and flying through Indian airports I have felt that the number of checks and stampings (of all baggage tags and boarding passes) are most disconcerting.

Hartal is considered as a democratic way for achieving any right putting a government in pressure, and there was considerable success in the past. Nowadays the environment is totally different; open negotiation is possible to settle an issue and because of the strong stand of media there is no reason to fear any unfair play. Every party in opposition always calls hartal. Did they ever take into account the sentiment of masses about hartal? Did any party count the losses caused by hartals? We request our leaders to go to the parliament and solve the issues through dialogue.

British lawmakers yesterday formally summoned Rupert Murdoch and his son James after they refused to testify next week, while News International boss Rebekah Brooks has agreed to appear, a statement said.

The unanimity of opinion between Britain's governing coalition and the Labour opposition on the urgent requirement of probing the activities of Rupert Murdoch's News International illustrates the ruffled sensitivities that unprincipled journalism can cause.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday said the perpetrators of Wednesday's blasts in Mumbai must be pursued relentlessly to bring them to justice soon and promised his government will do everything in its power to prevent such attacks in future.

Attacks on the world's seas are soaring as armed and dangerous pirates become increasingly emboldened, seizing more ships than before and taking even bigger risks, an international body said yesterday.

Arts & Entertainment

On his 69th birth anniversary, late theatre icon Abdullah Al Mamun was remembered by his troupe Theatre with a three-day celebration programme held at Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy. The programme was inaugurated on July 13 at the Studio Theatre Hall of the academy. The first day's programme featured a memorial lecture named after Mamun, staging of the play “Meraj Fakir-er Ma” and opening of a photo exhibition.

Lucky Nasreen's second solo art exhibition at National Art Gallery, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, wrapped up on July 12. The six-day exhibition featured over 50 artworks by the self-taught artist. A teacher by profession, the only formal training in art that Nasreen has had was a diploma from an art school in Delhi in 1974. Nasreen is the former chairperson of the Department of Philosophy at Tejgaon College, and she currently teaches at Darul Ihsan University. It is evident from her works that much of her interest leans towards oil painting.

Bhawaiya songs form an inextricable part of the cultural heritage of the people of Rangpur division who have a deep link with this genre of folk songs composed with heart rending tunes in their dialect.

Humayun Faridee is busier than ever before both as actor and director. After enjoying a considerable popularity with “Bharabari Barabari” and “Chhayabithi”, he is directing a new drama-serial titled “Takhan Hemantakal”. The play is written by Shafikur Rahman Shantonu. Besides directing, Faridee will be portraying the role of a business tycoon. The star cast includes Syed Hasan Imam, Mamunur Rashid, Zahid Hasan and Mou.

With Mumbai reeling under another terrorist strike, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan on Wednesday requested the French government to postpone an award ceremony scheduled in the capital later in the evening. The 37-year-old Bollywood actress was to receive the Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters (Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres) from the French government.

The photos of the Bijoyer Sand Sculpture Festival 2010 are being exhibited at the Zainul Art Gallery, Faculty of Fine Arts (FFA), University of Dhaka. Organised by Green World, the three-day exhibition was inaugurated on July 13. The photos on display are images of the sculpture festival at Cox's Bazar which featured sand sculptures of the heroes of the Liberation War.

OP-ED

From the experience of countries which has seen considerable growth in tourism, it is found that tourism development is not the job of a single ministry alone. It is a coordinated effort of all the ministries.

This civilization needs major repairs because it has been showing cracks in critical places. A lewd schoolteacher forced himself on his student and then used his mobile phone to take her pictures. He raped her again a few days later, warning her not to tell anyone because the smutty images were still in his possession. Didn't I say something is wrong with this civilization? A man of learning was disposed to behave like the monster of the monsters.

Drunk in the heady wine of success, blindfolded to absolute power corrupting absolutely, Rupert Murdoch's media empire is at last getting its comeuppance. Not that its methods passed off as white lilies in the past, but the present avalanche of revelations is sending shock waves down the media landscape.

The Greek parliament had passed two austerity measures to clear the way for its saviors -- the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and the IMF -- to roll out a bailout package that will prevent a default, at least for now.

Take one of the most unplanned urban centres in the world, wedge it between four flood-prone rivers in the most densely packed nation in Asia, then squeeze it between the Himalaya mountain range and a body of water that not only generates violent cyclones and the occasional tsunami, but also creeps further inland every year, washing away farmland, tainting drinking water, submerging fertile deltas, and displacing villagers as it approaches -- and there you have it: Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh and one of the world's largest mega cities.

StarTech

Bangladesh is a rich country. Even if not monetarily, the nation is rich in its soil. We as a nation are fortunate to have soil that facilitates the production of such a wide variety of agricultural products. With agriculture being the most promising asset of Bangladesh as well as considering the ever-increasing price of food, one would expect the farmers of Bangladesh to be anything but poor.

Hewlett-Packard's decision to enlist funnyman Russell Brand to promote its new TouchPad tablet in a series of online videos seems to have been the right one. People love the ads. Whether consumers will warm to the device itself remains to be seen, though.